CACF's ASAP Youth Leaders Present Their Youth-Led Advocacy Campaigns At Community Briefing

Our 2024-25 ASAP Youth Leaders present their certificates at ASAP’s annual Community Briefing. (Photo Credit: CACF)

New York, New York (June 13, 2025) --- Youth Leaders at CACF’s renowned Asian American Student Advocacy Project (ASAP) came together to present the results of their 2024-2026 advocacy campaigns on language access, mental health, and anti-bullying and harassment in New York City’s public schools at the program’s annual Community Briefing on Friday.

Now in its 21st year, ASAP was first founded in 2004 by CACF to create a space for young AAPI New Yorkers to discover how they can be self-aware and informed advocates for themselves, their communities, and their fellow public school students. This year’s ASAP cohort was made up of 36 young people from across the five boroughs and surrounding areas.

“Our annual ASAP Community Briefing is a special moment for everyone at CACF because it is a chance for our young people to showcase their research and advocacy on the issues that affect them the most,” said CACF’s Co-Executive Directors Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung. “ASAP was built on the belief that our young people are experts on their own experiences and we are so pleased to be able to highlight the research they’ve done this academic year to their teachers, families, and elected officials.”

Guests to Friday’s ASAP Community Briefing included Councilmember Rita Joseph, who also briefly addressed the ASAP Youth Leaders. In addition to receiving certificates of completion from CACF’s Co-Executive Directors, the Youth Leaders also received City Council citations from Councilmembers Shekar Krishnan, Linda Lee, Mercedes Narcisse, and Brooklyn-based Youth Leaders received citations from the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office.

CACF’s current ASAP Youth Leaders were selected after a vigorous application process and hail from 22 different high schools from across the city. One of our most diverse cohorts ever, they also represent 15 different Asian ethnic groups and speak 11 languages.

Below, four of our Youth Leaders share what ASAP and the Community Briefing mean to them.

“This briefing is the conclusion to a long year of focusing on AAPI mental health, the different perspectives of the gaps and challenges that AAPI face in schools, and how we can put that all together and find solutions and patterns. I’ve learned so much from my team over this year, and the briefing as a whole is such a special place for all the teams to share work that they’re proud of and advocate for change to our schools and, especially as a high school senior, to the generations after us,” said ASAP Youth Leader Olivia Kim.

“The ASAP briefing is special because it’s a unique opportunity to let others know what we do at ASAP and why it’s important. It’s a space where we get to educate and have meaningful conversations. For me personally, I’m also excited because this is my last ASAP briefing as a youth leader, and in a way, it’s like the ASAP graduation,” said ASAP Youth Leader and high school senior Emily Ng.

This year, my team have been working hard, having many discussions about anti-bullying and harassment, and how it affects AAPI students in NYC's public schools. I am excited to finally be able to share what I have learned with other people and hope to educate people in and outside ASAP on issues of bullying and harassment in schools,” said Ari Schaer, ASAP Youth Leader.

“Today’s briefing is special because it marks the end of the ASAP mental health campaign team for 2024-2025 and is a celebration of all of the progress that we’ve made. This briefing accumulates all the hard work that my team and I have done all school year on researching and understanding the mental health needs of AAPI and other students in New York City schools. I am excited about sharing our findings with the community,” said ASAP Youth Leader Ayesha Tasnim.

“I’m excited for the briefing because us ASAPers work so hard during the year, and I think we all love the idea of showing off our efforts. It also gives me a sense of accomplishment and contribution because I get to share our campaign’s findings with the community,” said Jonas Wooh, ASAP Youth Leader.

Photos from Friday's briefing can be found here. Please credit CACF in all usages.

For more information, please contact Lakshmi Gandhi, CACF’s Senior Communications Coordinator, at lgandhi@cacf.org.